Watersports blog

It seemed like the audience inadvertently took part in the surfing competition – literally.

Spectators of a surfing competition at Half Moon Bay, California, located in the southern part of San Francisco were swept off their feet by waves over six feet high. The waves reportedly pushed some spectators off the sea wall.

The police and firefighters, who immediately responded to the incident, moved the spectators back by a hundred yards. Earlier in the day, the public was already informed of strong and high waves but some couldn’t resist taking a closer look of participants showing their surfing skills in the contest.

Fortunately, no lives were lost in the incident. However, there were about 13 people who suffered broken legs and hands. Some have minor bruises and were treated at the beach.

The contest, called Mavericks Surf Contest has a cash prize of $150,000 which makes it one of the sought after surfing competitions among surfers.

The World Surfing Games takes place next week at Playa Hermosa, Jaco, Costa Rica and hundreds of participants from all over the world are expected to grace this South American paradise for this prestigious event. The Denny Irish Surf Team is among those who are preparing well for the competitions hosted by the Costa Rican Surfing Federation.
Surfers from more than 40 countries are expected to compete in events that will be staged from August 1 to 8, 2009.

The Irish team is headed by Stevie Burns (team manager) and Marcos Dias (coach). The team members are Emmet O’Doherty (Longboard), Liam Joyce (Open), Ronan Oertzen (Open), Tahlia Britton (Women), Stephen Kilfeather (Open), Fergal Smith (Open), Nicole Morgan (Women) and John McCurry (Longboard). These players are reportedly working hard to at least equal or surpass their records in past European and World Junior events.

The Irish team finished 16th in last year’s World Surfing Games. This is said to be their best result yet and with the tough training regimen they went through for this year’s event, surfing aficionados believe that the team has what it takes to improve on its record and may even get victories along the way.

The Estonian Windsurfing Championships, one of the major Pro Kids and Freestyle qualification events for the World Championships, was held recently in the western town of Topu with competitors from all over the world participating. When all was said and done, it was local player Christofer Kalk who clinched the title in front of the home crowd.

Kolk is an accomplished windsurfer, having won the under-17 event in last year’s world championships. The Estonian capitalized on the good weather, his high tech swimwear and great wind as he showed everyone his tricks and other moves to impress the judges.

The young Estonian virtually ruled in the earlier rounds to establish a big score margin against closest competitors. In the latter rounds, there were sudden surges from Tony Mottus and Robert Koppel to make things more interesting. Kalk, at one point, placed third in one of the stages. However, the wide lead in the first two rounds prevailed at the eighteen year old was officially adjusted as the Estonian Windsurfing Championships winner.

The World Championships is reportedly scheduled to take place later this year. The challenge is now on for Kalk to perform well in this event considering his impressive performance at the Estonian event.

The Billabong Pro surfing contest concluded with a bang on Wednesday with American surfer Bobby Martinez edging out Taj Burrow in an exciting final. The audience saw the two battle it out on three to five feet waves at Teahupoo.

Martinez’s win propelled him in the top 10 in the ASP World Tour rankings, zooming from number 19 to number 7 after the title win. It’s definitely a great achievement for someone who hails from Santa Barbara, California and just in the tour for only three years.

The ASP World Tour rankings revealed the continuing dominance of the Australians in surfing. Still holding the top three spots are Joel Parkinson (1st), Taj Burrow (2nd) and Mick Fanning (3rd). In a way, the win by Martinez was a stunning upset to higher seeded players.

The scores given by the judges to the two finalists were close, with Martinez getting 18.46 to Burrow’s 16.10. The American’s victory was secured after achieving a 9.73 score in one of the rounds.

The new champion said after the contest that the win was an emotional and lucky one. He stated that he was lucky enough to find a perfect wave to do his thing and that the specially designed swimwear gave him the extra smootness.

Competitors will troop to Brazil next month for the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro surfing competition.